Category: Early Days

timepiece

audio of text

aw the timepiece (occasionally the slimepiece) was the greatest of the nightclubs in exeter… blue monday probs the song i remember best, tho no doubt there was a reasonable dollop of the smiths
it had 2 floors, the ground floor bar had the most eccentric things dangling from the ceiling, whilst the dancefloor had tons of mirrors… i love mirrors in nightclubs (and they love me!)
inevitably a bit goth tinged, but everything was back then

oh and its still going! tho probs slightly different now, my nieces and nephew are ofttimes there… the ‘ghost of uncle dick’ haunts the place

usually the ‘last song’, everyone go home, at the timepiece in 85

Mary: Oh no, I’d forgotten that Louis Jordan song! Snap, amongst all the things I’ve thrown out or lost, I’ve still got my Timepiece membership card. Had my 21st birthday party there and was too full after eating at Coolings in Gandy Street (also still there) to drink, so remember it well!
Catherine Wood and Sarah J Smith have you still got yours?
(posts her membership card)

your 21st sounds like a hoot! i was in sydney, oz for mine… i didn’t recall that we even had membership cards till i stumbled across mine earlier!
i’ve got boxes and files of old stuff… but all decades jumbled up, seldom wade through any of it, never quite know whats there?… usually a guffaw… and sometimes fabulously but weirdly emotional… depth charge of the distant past!

Julie: Mine is long gone. Swapped three nights a week clubbing weighed down with black eyeliner for bed by 10 with a cuppa these days! But hearing Blue Monday and Love Cats always takes me back. xx

julie, had forgotten what a perfect pop song that is! xx

Iain: What a great last song Richard. Beats ‘Hi ho silver lining’ 😃. I still have a Louis Jordan LP, one of my reduced, precious collection. Love the photo.

he was deservedly and somewhat unexpectedly popular in indie circles in the 80’s
tho i was left with a frisson of antiquity to ponder (my brain unerringly mathematical) that more time has elapsed since the mid 80’s than between louis and then. eek! x

young one one

feels so near i can almost taste it, yet somehow, almost exactly, half a life time ago!… what does become of our younger selves… the river of time and all that malarkey
… edit… adding brief words, belatedly, to what is but a supremely lazy ‘memories of yesteryear’ repost…….
curious as to the provenance of this snap… i remember that we were in a pub car park, somewhere in surrey… with mum and dad, hence the dreads scraped back out of sight, suspect mel would have taken it
summer early 90’s… i’m either just back from prague or the caves in granada… or possibly even south america, but don’t think it’s that late time wise
not one of my pics, as i didn’t take a single one till the kids were born, old photos are somewhat skimpy on the ground
ah what became of that carefree fellow?… guess the young are seldom carefree… just my concerns would have been along the lines of ‘where am i sleeping tonight, wheres the next party!’
oops, it’s become a maudlin’ morning now… i’m shocked my socks match… thats what happens when you dress soberly to please the fogies
and more importantly what became of those groovy deckchair shorts… missing them sommat grevious! x

2nd esher

audio of text

the mighty 2nd Esher! cubs football, the year we swept all before us, but still somehow contrived to lose the final on penalties. heartbreaking
we beat ajax something like 13 – 3, they were sea cubs, which helped, and even a lumpen defender like me managed to score a hat trick… tho that might be a cheerfully skewed recollection!
i can still name all but 2 of the team… must be 76? 77? britain, a nation in the grip of exuberant punk frenzy, but bruv and i would spend saturday mornings watching hammy the hamster and kicking a ball about the rec
ok… no danger of profoundity here… prevaricating, its soggy out there and i’m off to help at apple day… could be a galloshers squelch
happy equinox one and all xx

ali: A nice time in life

booting a ball in break time at primary school was great fun too! x

Rich P: So much hair. And what a strip.

ah so many impressive barnet bonces! at least you’ve retained a few follicles on yours… even at the time i felt the kit was a peculiar melange of colours and design… and i didn’t even become a graphic (or fashion!) designer xx

karma

audio of text

karma karma karma chameleon!
….
our model wears… what? a pink star shell hawaiian shirt, rummaged from a flea market somewhere in greenwich village
a purple batwing concoction that flaps carried all the way home from kathmandu
the hat tho must be my brothers? not the sort of tifter that would ever have graced my bonce
christmas 89? oaklawn, art nouveau chaise longue, arabic brass lamp stuck over with marbles
peak gadabout for me… just back from portugal? and 2 months in a hostel in Barcelonas Plaza Real
the berlin wall is toppling… i’ll be in prague, via sheff, within the year
the past… when it’s this lurid foolish youthful can be flambuoyant beguiling
right chauffeurs garb on, rush hour trundle off to cart sis to heathrow… yes m’lady!
*tifter… tit for tat hat

may: wheres the orange cape???

Ha! Exeter uni orange curtain capers, smooching wiv jk! Xx

ant: from Rentaghost???

Claypole? I was always rather good at teleporting by holding me nose x

Rich P: I think you still owe me for the purple batwing concoction.

It was a thing of beauty! Much missed! Did ya really lug it all the way home on the trans sib? Xx

Rich P: Kept me warm during those chilly Siberian nights… x

luci: Looking fabulous! x

Yoof in gorgeous rainment x